Among Mrs. Grant’s 22 first graders, ten are English language learners, while another two are autistic and have special needs. One of the autistic students is physically and verbally aggressive. Mrs. Grant realized that the classroom had many obstacles to overcome before becoming an emotionally and physically safe place for all the students. Mrs. Grant played a video explaining the importance of classroom rules. She showed another YouTube video showing students following their classroom rules.
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Mrs. Grant has a class of 22 first graders. Ten of the students are English language learners, while another two are autistic and have special needs. One of the autistic students is physically and verbally aggressive. The class has 13 boys and 8 girls. She realized that the classroom had many other obstacles to overcome before becoming an emotionally and physically safe place for all the students.
During the first three weeks of school the aggressive autistic student screamed, dumped books from student baskets, poured water on the student tables and student work, and ran from the room to escape correction. Mrs. Grant was advised by others in her school that the relationship building activities she had planned for the class would not work with this student. In addition, there were several instances of sexually inappropriate touching and speaking from a male student to several female students. There was fighting when students were asked to line up. There were incidents of name calling, hitting, pushing, and pinching by two male students. Mrs. Grant took a firm hand in her classroom and at the same time she began to implement character education instruction and related activities.
Mrs. Grant began the relationship and character building activities immediately. She taught the meanings of respect, integrity, safety, and effort. She modeled respect to all of the children. She recognized students who were showing these traits. She had children work in cooperative groups on a regular basis. And from the very beginning Mrs. Grant incorporated character education videos from TeacherTube, YouTube, and Discovery Education. She played and replayed many times, a video respect song that portrayed students getting along and helping one another. Students in Mrs. Grant’s class soon learned the song by heart and sang along as they viewed the images. She played a video that showed students following their classroom rules. It depicted students who were happy and safe. Another YouTube video about classroom rules produced by Harry Kindergarten became a favorite of Mrs. Grant’s class.